Buffy The Vampire Slayer: How Spike Had The Best Character Arc On 2000s TV

Season five was a big one for everyone involved, but in the long run it's biggest for Spike. Reverting back to his evil ways early on, he tries and fails to get the chip removed so he can finally kill Buffy, and after spending a night telling her his sordid story in Fool For Love, comes to the sudden realisation that he's in love with her.

This is the big turning point in Spike's character, and it changes everything.

Despite not having a soul, Spike's love for Buffy consumes him, and through both her and her sister Dawn he actually becomes surprisingly close to the core gang. He proves himself to be a good man underneath his many morally grey flaws, and at one point is willing to give his life to protect Dawn from new big bad Glory.

Because Glory - a literal god - is too powerful for Buffy alone, Spike becomes a vital addition to the core team. But there's still some glaring issues. For one thing, he still has no soul, regardless of how effective the chip is. For another, no one other than Buffy seems to trust him, which is fair given everything he's done.

As he says in the season finale: "I may be a monster, but you treat me like a man." Spike knows he's not good enough for Buffy, knows his past has ruined any chance he may have at redemption, but he's accepted it, and is willing to fight for something he truly believes in. In this case, that something being Buffy and Dawn.

This development reaches its emotional apex in the finale, when Buffy gives her life to save the world (again), and Spike breaks down in tears. Somehow, the vampire with no humanity is actually painfully human. Unfortunately, it's here that things start to get really tough to stomach...

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